


Signatures

by Okami_no_fude



Series: Linked Universe oneshots [14]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Character Study, Hyrule's POV, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Magical signatures/aura, Mention of other Links, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22129318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami_no_fude/pseuds/Okami_no_fude
Summary: People may think that he was one of the more mellow and easy-going ones among the group of heroes, but that was not always the case.Hyrule can see magical signatures, and he utilizes that skill every time he meets someone new.That included the time when he met the other heroes.What he sees is concerning.
Series: Linked Universe oneshots [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412722
Comments: 14
Kudos: 252





	Signatures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moonsamurai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonsamurai/gifts).



> This is for moonsamurai, (or Moon as we know and love in the LU discord server), who has helped me out of my writing depression/flunk with one conversation we had in a discord chat. 
> 
> I need to also thank the lovely [Pan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky_Cassandra) for taking their time off of their busy schedule to be my beta reader <3  
> Usual Disclaimers:  
> [Linked Universe](https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/) belongs to @jojo56830.  
> Legend of Zelda and related stuff belongs to Nintendo.

People may think that he was one of the more mellow and easy-going ones among the group of heroes, but that was not always the case.  
Due to the perilous adventures he had before he had met the others, Hyrule has always been alone in his travels. As such, he has developed skills of survival and self-preservation. 

One of them was to detect and analyze magical signatures of others. 

It was a useful skill to have, and he utilized it whenever he could.

That also included the first time he had met the rest of the heroes. 

He may have shown a somewhat friendly demeanor when the group of heroes met, but that was just a front. He knew better to trust people that looked friendly ever since he had a close shave with an Ache disguised as a villager during his second journey.

The Hero of Hyrule was still naive back then; meeting people in towns was such a new concept to him since he met no signs of friendly life except for the old, cryptid man (who may or may not have been helpful). 

He had many reasons to talk to people: to gather information, learn new useful spells, and just have some sorely-needed friendly interactions with people. But he learned the hard way that not everything was as it seemed with that encounter in Saria Town. 

Hyrule was very lucky he managed to escape with his life intact.

As such he learned to hone his senses so he could do a brief surface scan of living beings’ magical signatures, as that usually showed one’s true nature. 

Which gave him the reason why he was initially wary about a few heroes. 

The biggest worry was Twilight.

This hero’s magical signature was _seeped_ with an unknown dark aura, alongside his light; something foreign to the hero of Hyrule. 

The darker part of Twilight’s magical signature was too...icky for him to be comfortable with.

His first thought that Twilight was not a hero like he proclaimed he was, but a sleeper agent for their enemies.

Hyrule was also wary about Four, as his initial surface scan had resulted in finding a small hint of dark magic lingering in Four. It might not have been as prominent as Twilight’s, but it was still there.

Legend had been the same; he had a speck of dark magic, but it was extremely faint. Hyrule really couldn’t believe that the Hero of Legend, the hero he had heard in stories of old, would be a bad person either (this was not him hero-worshipping, okay?).

As time went on and he spent time with them, he began to reevaluate his initial thoughts about each hero.

Everyone truly had the spirit of the hero, and just because their magical signatures had signs of, or were seeped in dubious, unknown magic, did not mean that their characters were leaned toward evil. 

Would a bad person put themselves in harm’s way toward people they were trying to get killed and get themselves severely injured in the process? Hyrule really doubted that.

With that re-evaluation, Hyrule subtly did more in-depth scans of each heroes’ signatures. 

What he found out with some of them had him a bit alarmed.

While most of them had the same warm bright aura, some had something... _extra, unnatural._

Legend’s dark aura was just a speck and it seemed faint and dormant, dark pink buried deep in bright yellow. With Twilight, his magical signature looked like two opposite affinities swirling together, black and white; yin and yang. 

But that wasn’t the concerning signatures.

It was Time’s and Four’s aura. 

When Hyrule observed the eldest’s magical signature, he saw _four other distinctive magical signatures_ besides Time’s original bright gold; forest green, rock brown, sea green, and blue aura with a tinge of purple swirling against each other. Deep within each one, he could _taste_ the hint of sorrow and regret mixed in them.

All of the auras seemed to be connected, but the last one seemed to be partially merged with the golden light. Each of these extra signatures did have the hint of the same golden aura, but each had more prominent natures: the vibrant aura of forest life, the defensive toughness of a mountain, the flowing gracefulness of the water, and… 

He could not really label what the bluish aura was like; it was too… slippery, like as if it was silk, but hidden beneath that he could feel a whirlpool of immense power. 

Hyrule wasn’t sure how to feel about this last aura: of course, the other magical signatures within Time was already concerning enough, as it was too distinct to say that it was 100% part of him, but the powerful enigma that is the blue aura being the one merged partially with Time’s original aura was worrying. The golden energy seemed to be containing the extra ones, keeping them in check, but could Hyrule be 100% sure that was the case? 

Four was a different case, but just as concerning. Instead of having extra signatures swirling beside one large aura, the smith’s magical signature was _fractured into four different pieces_. They felt like they were the same, as he could sense all of them having the same base nature of what he would compare to a lake: calm on the front but very deep when you try to peer into it. But all of these pieces had distinctive colors separating them; quiet violet, turbulent blue, warm red, and unwavering green. The four signatures blended with each other on occasion, but for the most part, they stayed separated. 

While the auras were bordered with silver energy, Hyrule couldn’t help but notice there seemed to be gaps between the colored auras. Tiny slivers of complete void.

As if it was missing something.

Hyrule could not feel anything from these oddly-placed gaps at all. The edges of the colors seem to slowly drift over and flowing into the gaps, but the holes never filled up.  
Hyrule couldn’t help but imagine that these auras were trying to reach into the holes to pull something ( _or someone_ , his mind whispered,) out.

Four was like an old puzzle, pieces worn and torn in such a way it was doomed to never fit back together perfectly again. 

  
  


These were such drastic differences in the usual magical signatures he has seen in his life. Sure Twilight’s signature was unique having two distinct auras, opposite of each other, but they seemed to be in harmony; it defined him of who he was. The ones he sensed within Time and Four… it was not the usual. What kind of horrors did these two heroes face to leave such distinctive scars on the otherwise unchanging magical signatures?

Hyrule spared a glance at Time, who was currently walking at the front of the group leading them, then at Four who was chatting amicably with Wild.  
The eldest never had revealed much of his past, what kind of journey he has taken for him to earn such a title as ‘the Hero of Time’. He could guess that it was related to the flow of time, (mayhaps he had done some manipulation?) but he did not think that any possible time manipulation Time may have done would have led to his situation.  
The same went for Four. The smith’s nickname did make sense in terms of how his signature was split into four pieces, but Hyrule doubted that was the case he named himself that. Did his sword have something to do with his condition? 

If his sword really had a hand in this...puzzle piece, then why did it also harm him, if he was guessing it correctly that the gaps were caused by whatever it did?  
  
He really couldn’t come to any conclusions on his analysis on their magical signatures alone, as this was their problem. What he could bet on though, was that both Time and Four were probably aware of their situation, as who would know them better but themselves? 

Hyrule could just only keep an eye out, and hope that the two have talked about whatever happened to them to their closest friends and family. If they didn’t…  
  
Well, Hyrule hopes that when the time comes where they trust each other to the point everyone feels comfortable with sharing, he would be adequate enough to help them out, whether physically, magically, or mentally.

Because these people were someone he has come to trust.


End file.
